


teapots and dragons

by jesuisdeux



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aang (Avatar) Needs a Hug, Death, Everyone Needs A Hug, Gen, Iroh (Avatar) is a Good Uncle, Iroh (Avatar) loves Tea, Mistaken Identity, Precious Aang (Avatar), Talking, Trauma, Zuko (Avatar) Needs a Hug, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, mentioned Kuzon, mentioned Lu Ten
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:22:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27310396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jesuisdeux/pseuds/jesuisdeux
Summary: Two times Zuko wakes up at the night to assure someone and two times someone mistakens Zuko for a beloved one.First, it is Iroh.Second, it is Aang.Zuko is perplexed. Being someone he is not makes him feel worse than it should be.
Relationships: Aang & Zuko (Avatar), Iroh & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 135





	teapots and dragons

Ba Sing Se is a beautiful city. Even though Zuko doesn’t want to admit, it is. Since they moved to the upper ring, life seems easier. Every smell, every face, everything is easier. At lower rings, everything was exceptionally _harder_. Here, life is simple. Ba Sing Se is a mountain and upper altitude means clean air. The rest is swept to the lower altitude, because some can’t even stand to look at this filth.

Zuko closes the door when last customer finally leaves, his uncle smiles him and talks about their supplies and the next order. Night is clear and silent; the moon is full. They yawn while talking about the daily works, and in seconds, they are on their beds. Zuko tries not to think about the complicated things, things that impossible to unriddle right now. Instead of it, he can think about tomorrow’s duties or the girl she met. He knows she likes pu’er tea but they don’t order much from it, and she never catches it. He can his uncle to order more of it. Yes, yes, he should do that.

He can invite her to a… date? His uncle would be happy. He turns to other side on bed and looks at the little silvers on his desk. He saved some money; upper ring is definitely more penny pincher but also their children definitely don’t know how much leave as a tip. He can buy a teapot for his uncle. It would also make him happy.

His eyelids get heavier, and he lets them close.

But they open. There some painful words wandering in the night, it is not that silent anymore.

Someone is… nearly begging, Zuko would say. Someone is bargaining for something, nearly. He jumps to his feet and throws himself to their little corridor. No, no, it is coming from uncle’s room, no, he opens the door-

Oh, he is okay. He is fine.

Zuko inhales some air, and examines the old man on the bed. He is murmuring something, at first Zuko thought it was his shoulder once again. Azula’s lighting left him with night pains. But it is something different. His uncle is dreaming, and as far as Zuko can see, it is not physical pain. It is something worse, as Zuko is familiar. Past sometimes decides to hunt is uncle. Past sometimes decides to hunt him too, it is much of a family tradition. Yes, his uncle is goofy, sometimes acting naively optimist. But sometimes he just bargains for lives of soldiers he killed, directly or indirectly. Sometimes it just an old, martyr lieutenant. Sometimes, it is a very special and dear soldier.

“I have changed,” his uncle speaks slowly, his voice calm but filled with a deep sorrow. “I learned my mistake. I see all, from the bloody trenches to the little flower you hold in your hand. Please, I am begging, I have changed.”

Zuko can’t hear the sentence clearly but he imagines it is a philosophical thing, or probably a proverb. But also, he is bargaining for something. He knows, his uncle is religious and has a very special relationship with spirits and Agni. It is not very hard for him to assembling pieces. (What he doesn’t know is, his uncle doesn’t talk to a deity, no, he wants acceptance from people. From an organization, older than all of them. This is a story his uncle will tell to him months later.)

Not sure of what to do, he waits there awhile. Murmurs change. They stiffen. They weaken. At the end, when his uncle seems to close to crying, Zuko hesitantly decides to interfere. He slowly touches his uncle’s shoulder -the healthy one- and tries to wake him up. His uncle is a dead sleeper, he slowly turns his head.

“Lu Ten? Is that you?”

Zuko’s eyes widen with surprise for a second. He knows, his uncle loves him. He loves him too, even though he is bad at showing it, but he never expected _this_. It is somehow flattering, or, it should be flattering. Right? Should it be flattering? But he doesn’t resemble anything with his cousin. Their appearances are not even close -especially not after the Agni Kai, he thinks bitterly. Their characteristics are so different, Lu Ten was calmer, Zuko is hotheaded. Lu Ten was better at so many things, he was a real heir, Zuko always wanted to be like him… but… _not this way_. Not in Ba Sing Se, in the middle of the night, while his uncle is crying.

And, he knows, he should be flattered, he knows he is being ungrateful, but he is not flattered. In fact, weirdly, he is sad, there is a weird jealousy inside of him. When he looked up to Lu Ten, he wanted to make his father feel the things Iroh felt when he saw Lu Ten. Zuko is not sure if it is something simple as love or something different, but that was all. He wanted to be Zuko, and he wanted to be loved. It looks like it is not possible. Not with Ozai. Not even with Iroh.

But it is okay if being Zuko is not enough for that things. It is nothing new. He doesn’t reject. _He can’t._ He can’t break his uncle’s heart like this. For a moment, he can think his son is alive and well. For a moment. He deserves it. “Yes, _father_?” he answers, tries not to think about the lump in his throat.

“Did you brew the tea?” he asks and Zuko could laugh at this if he wasn’t holding back tears.

“Yes,” he says. “Yes, yes I did.”

“Good.”

Zuko steps back, at least his uncle isn’t crying or begging anymore, nightmare defeated. When he is about to leave the room, his uncle frowns. “Lu Ten?” he asks once again.

There is a swallowing and a “Yes? Uhm, father?”

“Did you know I love you?”

Why is his uncle such a man? Zuko can’t blame him, it is his uncle, he is like that, he shows he loves people clearly. But why right now, he can’t stop himself but ask. Playing along shouldn’t be that hard. But it is.

“Yes, father. I love you too.”

And his uncle’s frown fades away, as he just didn’t say he loved his dead son, not even realizing it wasn’t his dead son. He mumbles about playing Pai Sho tomorrow.

Zuko wipes his tears and goes to his bed. Tomorrow he needs to get up early, he will buy that new teapot to his uncle.

-

They are sleeping together, circling around the fire pit. It was somehow warm for a night outside, maybe airbenders were this clever and their design was making this place hot with one fire in the middle. Zuko turned to the other side in his sleeping bag, he was thinking about firebending. He wasn’t a perfect teacher, to be precise, and firebending was something like breathing to him and teaching someone to breath, of course, was hard. Aang was a fast-learner with a raw talent, to Zuko’s chance. But he needed to prepare himself for the lessons, especially advanced techniques, or worse, lighting bending was dangerous and difficult topics.

But then he hears someone talking slowly. He straightens himself and listens carefully the voice.

“they can’t be all dead, Katara, can they be?”

It’s Aang.

Zuko asks himself “Who are _they_?” for a second. But deep down he knows the answer. The answer to Aang’s question on the other hand, is “Yes, yes they can be.”

And whose grand-grandfather’s fault is that?

The voice keeps asking his questions slowly, _desperately_ , and finally drops. _“They can be somewhere, they could hide- Katara, you are not listening me-”_ s and _“You can’t just possible find every single one of them!”_ s stop. For a second there is silent and Zuko tries to calculate what he should do while looking at the sky. But then instead of a voice, there are sobs in the air between them. Zuko looks at Katara, she is sleeping right now, normally, Zuko knows, she would be the one to assure him.

He stands up slowly, as he is approaching a terrified animal, jumping over a few sleeping bags carefully, walks to Aang.

He watches the crying boy for a second with a pain. He is still sleeping, and Zuko doesn’t know what to do.

How can he assure him? _How dare him_ , first of all. _How dare him?_ He is the responsible for his pain with his red clothing, isn’t he? He has the stupid ancestry who gave the unbearable pain to the now-crying-twelve-year-old in front of him. Zuko himself doesn’t have a very cheerful life but he can’t imagine that kind of a grief. What should he do?

The boy startles once again with his own sob and Zuko forgets his crime and guilt immediately, reaches to Aang’s shoulder. Aang turns to him and blinks a few times, clearly his mind somewhere else. At least he is not crying anymore.

“Kuzon?” he asks with surprise.

Zuko opens his mouth to protest, nearly, nearly, but he stops himself at the last moment. No need to disappoint anyone. He heard Aang talking about Kuzon before, they were clearly very close and Kuzon was one of the few things Aang had from a better world. A better Fire Nation. But Zuko wonders what happened to Kuzon. He tries not to think about the harsh recruiting policy of those times.

“Yes, Aang?” he nods. He wonders if Kuzon looked like him.

Aang’s face somehow lits up as he closes his eyes. He is not crying, no, even better, he is faintly smiling. But then his face becomes serious. “Do you think Master Ping is still angry to us?”

Zuko has never heard the story about angering Master Ping, but he can pretend.

“No,” he says light-heartedly, “I am sure he already forgave us.”

Aang’s face relaxes and he nods. “Would you like to search for a dragon again, tomorrow?”

“Yeah, yeah. That would be cool.”

Aang nods slowly and his face looks peaceful. He mutters something about riding them.

Zuko, with a little shock, goes back to his place.

Everything Aang knows and remembers of the world is destroyed in the hands of his nation. He has to change that, so first, he has to find a good way of teaching Aang advanced moves.

-

Iroh puts Zuko’s bowl some rice.

“Can we order more pu’er tea, uncle?” Zuko asks while noting about their supply order on a paper.

Iroh smiles. “Of course! Is it for… someone special, may I ask?”

“Uncle!” Zuko screams and Iroh raisises his hands innocently.

“All right, all right.”

Zuko lingers his eyes on paper and then nods, admitting his uncle’s prediction. Iroh smiles even wilder. They eat in peace, sometimes Zuko asks about Mr. Shu’s usual order or how much sugar they should order. Iroh answers all the questions, they can order less tea because sour recipes are getting popular.

At one point, he lraises his head and looks the kitchen behind him.

“Did you brew the tea, my s-” Iroh asks but swallows the last intented word.

Zuko seems uncomfortable, to say the least. Perhaps with the word, perhaps with the memory of last night. Iroh scratches his head and nods slowly.

“I guess I made a mistake, last night, right, my nephew?” he starts. Zuko doesn’t say anything, he doesn’t even move.

“It was a mistake, because you are not Lu Ten.”

Zuko looks at his eyes, as he is searching for a dismiss, an anger, a disappointment. But they are full of kindness.

“And being Lu Ten isn’t goal, do you understand Zuko?” Iroh asks. “Being him is only okay, for him. But that’s not the case. What I mean is, you are Zuko, and that’s beautiful. Your only goal is to be happy as being Zuko. It is more than enough for me.”

Zuko’s brows get closer with confusion.

“I think you as my son, yes,” Iroh admits. “But not as Lu Ten. I love you so much, as much as Lu Ten, but you are Zuko and that’s it. I know, what I did was rude. But please forgive this old soul, I blend my memories.”

Zuko nods slowly.

There is nothing but shallow breaths at their little home for a second.

“But I am offended that you underestimate my hearts capacity as it has enough space for two sons.” Iroh cuts the silence. He embraces Zuko tightly.

Zuko buys the teapot.

-

“I can’t believe we actually have seen real dragons!” Zuko exclaims while they are performing an advanced form. The way he explained it to Aang worked. _It needs to roar in your chest_ , he has said, _but like a cat_. Aang was perplexed at the definition but then he understood it fastly. _Oh, yes, fire’s whole philosophy! It needs to be powerful but controlled! And cute!_

Zuko wasn’t a fan of calling firebending cute, nor the slang Aang used.

When they finished their cute form, Aang answered his thoughts on seeing dragons. “Like I told you, when I was a child, there were dragons everywhere!” he was breathing hardly but smiling wildly. Zuko stops himself from saying _You are still a child!_ becase he knows the response. _Well, you are just a teenager!_

“But they were shy, so me and my friend Kuzon always searched for them on the top of mountains!”

At the thought of Kuzon, Aang’s smile leaves his face.

“I mistaken you last night, didn’t I?”

“No big deal,” Zuko says, shrugging. “But you… kind of… worried me.”

Aang smiles with sorrow as he tends to at heavy situations. Zuko doesn’t even know how he manages to do so. “Bad dreams come.” he says, nonchalantly. “Isn’t it one of our group’s speciality?”

Zuko can’t deny, they are the children of war, after all. So, he nods. “So what about Kuzon?” he asks. “Did you ever find a dragon?”

“Oh, yes, we did!” Aang starts. They sit on a bench. His eyes shine as he tells him the story. He talks about how they climbed the mountain. _And the last time I remember, firebenders couldn’t fly, Kuzon!_ He frowns while talking about the egg thieves. _They talked about selling it on the black market. What would they even need them for?_ He laughs as he talks about how they pretended Appa was a dragon. _You are as good as dragons, Appa, don’t worry._ He jumps when he says he thought the dragon was bout the eat him. _You know, like turtle-ducks Zuko, don’t mess with their children._ And Zuko laughs at that. But finally, everything is okay, and there comes the story of how Kuzon and him accidentally lost a historical artifact and made Master Ping very angry. And how they accidentally stopped the counterfeiter and saved the artifacts. And how day by day, Kuzon’s family was more sceptical about Aang. How everyone knew so many stupid rumors about air nomads. How they were so rude. And then he couldn’t even see Kuzon because Fire Nation was getting more hostile day by day. And then they told him he was the Avatar and then he escaped and then he killed everyone and then-

“Hey, hey, Aang,” Zuko stops him. “You didn’t kill anyone.”

Aang exhaled and started using systematically. It was one of the methods Zuko has taught him.

“The only responsible people are Sozin and the ones who saw but didn’t reject.” Zuko continued. “Guilt is the last feeling you must feel, okay?”

“I know. Still… It feels bad. But I since I opened my chakras, it is much better.” he admits. “Sorry for bothering you last night.”

“No, I _am_ sorry, Aang.”

“Don’t be. It is not your fault.” Aang seriously answers. Then he beams and then screams. “Look, you are here, and you just taught me how to bend fire like a cute cat, hotman!”

“Thanks,” Zuko says softly but adds, “And don’t call me that!”

Aang laughs. “You make me remember Kuzon,” he says. “He also would hate it when I called him that. It was actually a very official way of greeting, so it was funny and- don’t glare me like that, I can’t resist, sorry hotman!”

He straightens up a bit. “And I find a dragon with both of you. So yes, sometimes when we practice bending, I think of Kuzon. But you are completely different. And I am glad I have a friend like you!”

Zuko mutters something awkwardly at that. “But,” Aang adds, “I would like to see his face when I told him I was able to bend fire too,” he chuckles.

“Thinking of firebending, fall new forms are waiting for you,” Zuko reminders.

“Yes, yes, I know,” Aang grumbles. “But promise me, when everything is over,” he wears his serious face now, because everything means a war, he has a duty to end, “we will look for more dragons. I am sure there are more than Ran and Shaw. They can’t possibly find every one of them. Promise me.”

“I promise you.” Zuko says. “We will search for more dragons.”

They probably couldn’t find any air nomad but dragons… Dragons were a good start for a new world, a world Aang remembered.

**Author's Note:**

> Dragon search part is from lost adventures, Kuzon and Aang's frienship was so cool. I think show's best relationships are Zuko and his uncle and Zuko and Aang. good old frienship and family bond yep
> 
> cats exist in atla universe which is weird because they are not a fuison of two animals.
> 
> I am not native so please tell me your idea. Correct my grammar. Give me criticism.


End file.
